I AM NOT A LESBIAN. Okay?

So you know how last year I mentioned that back in middle school, people spread this awful rumor that I was a lesbian? Yeah. Apparently that rumor has followed me around even to high school.

FOR THE LAST TIME. I AM NOT A LESBIAN. I LOVE GUYS. OKAY?

Hi :/

I feel so horrible, you have no idea, for not posting more this summer. Like seriously, I feel all sheepish typing this right now. So I'd just like to say I'm sorry, y'all <3.

I haven't been up to much lately. Well, that's not entirely true...I went to New Mexico about two weeks ago and it was so much fun! I didn't want to go home, I love NM too much. Also I've been remodeling my room: different color walls, new bed/mattress, new desk, new window shade, a lamp above my bed for better reading, etc. It's about time, too; my room hadn't been seriously redecorated since maybe my eleventh birthday.

My braces still haven't come off. Doctor Collins promises that the top braces (maybe even bottom too, if I'm lucky) will be taken off on September 20, so yayyy.

Oh yeah! And my aunt is getting remarried and guess who's the maid of honor? ME!

School starts next Monday. We had orientation yesterday and I met two of our transfer students! One of them and I hit it off right off the bat; she's basically my twin. New best friend, perhaps? (What am I saying...all of my friends are my best friends. So I guess I don't have one, except David.)

RT #400

I love unique, indie stuff! I really like shopping for clothes that you can't find anywhere else, mostly on www.modcloth.com. And I occasionally listen to indie bands like Walk Off The Earth. No, I am NOT a hipster. I'm just different.

RT #399

I LOVE country music. I'm not exactly sure why, but I do.


I'm sorry for not posting in a while. I don't have much to post about anymore.

RT #398

Today was my first day of work! I worked for about 4 hours today and it was slow going, we're usually not very busy on weekdays. But it was still fun. We have good music playing where I work, and free A/C (except I was outside for a long while, pricing yard art and stuff).

RT #397

I am allergic to just about everything. Seriously. I'm on shots to help immunize me of my allergies, but sometimes they're just so bad I might as well not even have taken my medicine. Like today. I can hardly think, my brain is so muddled with whatever the heck is in there. Maybe I'll go take a nap.


I'm apparently starting my new job tomorrow after VBS! Yay! Except I might not if I feel as bad as I do right now. 

RT #396

I have a headache today. I think it's just sugar-induced, since I had a lot of sweets this morning at VBS. We were icing all the cupcakes this morning, all 29 dozen, and we were allowed to lick any icing that got on our hands off. Plus there was a lot of excess once we'd finished, so we transferred the rest of it into another bowl for the teen volunteers' snack table so they (and we) could dip pretzel sticks into the icing.

Another cause of my headache might be this kid named Cameron. He's so cute but he's mean to the rest of the kids in his group; he always hits them during snack time and their group leader likes to hide back in the little break room until it's time to leave. Just today Aidan came up to me and he told me that Cameron had hit him five times, but when I told him to apologize to Aidan he just said "I didn't hit him, he's lying," like all kids who get in trouble do. Later on I saw him hit Aidan again, and I told him that I'd seen and that he needed to apologize but he denied it again, which led to a big argument between them. 

Today was not my day :( but there's only two days left and I need the service hours. 

Random Truths are Back, Y'all :)

Wellllllll.......I'm going to do random truths again now as a way to get myself back in the swing of blogging daily. And since I've lost count of how many I actually have so far, we'll start at a random number, but not really that random if you're a die-hard Harry Potter fan like me.

RT #394: I am obsessed with gum. It's true. I can't get enough of it; whenever I actually have a pack (which isn't too often since I run out in 2 days tops) I chew around 5 pieces a day. My orthodontist says I'm not actually supposed to chew it since it could get caught in my braces, but I've "forgotten" about that rule. 

#395: I'm a Hufflepuff! My old Pottermore account got messed up somehow, so I had to start over and make a new one. I hadn't yet gotten to the Sorting Hat on my old account, so I was sorted today for the first time. I'm a Hufflepuff, as I had hoped! People think Hufflepuff is the least clever house, but the truth is we have awesome witches and wizards, we just don't brag about it like the other houses. Quietly brilliant, we are. I find this kind of foreshadowed, my being sorted to Hufflepuff, since you'll remember that the short story I posted had a character who also was a Hufflepuff. See, Esther is based on myself!

This isn't really a RT since it's not really a personal fact about me, but I'm volunteering allllll this week at my parish's Vacation Bible School in the snacks department, which is right up my alley. Monday's snack were these little Fig Newton Bibles which were really fun to make (my friend Sarah and I were in charge of piping the crosses on top out of vanilla icing)! Today's snack was a St. Jerome's Cave, which in reality is a waffle cone filled with freshly popped popcorn, mini marshmallows, M&Ms, raisins, and Cheerios. We also baked 350 cupcakes for tomorrow so they'll be cool enough to ice in the morning. 

Yeah, I'm a Rebel. What Else is New?

I dyed the ends of my hair aqua yesterday! No, seriously. I did. I love how it turned out :)


What, you don't think I can be rebellious? No one seems to think I would have ever done this, but I've always wanted to. I asked my mom a couple years ago to let me have streaks put in my hair but she said no. It's only for the summer; if the dye doesn't come out before school starts I'll have to cut the dyed part of my hair off. Hopefully my hair will be long enough that it won't really make that much of a difference.


Well.....now I'm bored. So here is a bunny.
 /)__/)
( = ':'  )
(,_(")_(")


Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Papa and the Thanksgiving Dinner from Hell

Well, okay, maybe not exactly from hell, seeing as Satan probably doesn't want to thank God. But you know what I mean. On with the story.

In November of 2009, I believe, our family was planning a different kind of Thanksgiving dinner. We wanted to change it up a bit while still keeping the main theme of the food (turkey, pumpkin pie, etc.). So what we did is this: we got a Cajun specialty called a turducken, which is a whole turkey stuffed with a whole duck stuffed with a whole chicken (all of it plucked and killed, of course) and filled with some spicy rice or something. But we didn't stop there, oh no. My mom and I watched this Thanksgiving special on Food Network and Tyler Florence showed us how to make a pumpkin-banana-chocolate-meringue pie. It all sounded good to us, but looking back, both of these were HORRIBLE ideas. A big problem with the pie (aside from the bizarre combination of the ingredients) was that my mom didn't blind-bake the crust, so it was really soggy and gross, and that she didn't bake it right away which made it even more soggy and gross, and that the meringue got burned. Thanksgiving rolled around, and my grandparents came over for the feast. The turducken was so gross, not at all like the Cajun market dude guaranteed it would be. The side dishes were pretty good, which was a plus. But when it was time for the pie, nobody really wanted to eat it. Even Mom and I realized it was horrible. However, Papa being the brave, kind father everyone wants to have, kept on eating his piece of pie long after everyone else had pushed theirs aside. Perhaps he really did like it, but I'm betting he just didn't want to hurt Mom's feelings.

I am not feeling that great today, actually pretty terrible. This morning was worse, though. I've been feeling better ever since I threw up (did you know you don't have to have anything in your stomach to still vomit like crazy? I didn't.) and the medicine I took upon feeling like this is starting to take effect.

[No Title Today]

I. Am. Bored. Extremely so. So I'm blogging. Not that blogging is like a last-resort thing, you know I love blogging. I'm rambling again, aren't I?

Anyway, I went shooting again on Saturday. It was National Take Your Daughter to the Range Day, so my dad signed me up for this pistol safety class thing in which there were only two other girls, aged about eight and ten. I learned how to load a magazine (not the paper kind, it's what holds the bullets in a gun) and that I'm right-eye dominant, which means when I aim my gun I close my left eye to line the sights up. We actually did get to shoot after the class part of the training; when we were in the corridor leading to the range our guide person asked who wanted to go first and both of the younger girls simultaneously pointed at me. I was all, yeah, I'll go, I was going to volunteer anyway, because I really was. I've shot before, and these kids hadn't, so I was going to show them how it's done. I did very well! I had 10 bullets loaded in my magazine. My first shot hit the target but I wasn't exactly aiming, I was using that for a test shot. Shot #2 was kind of low, but closer to the bullseye than #1. I had a really nice grouping in the bullseye and the ring just outside of it for the remainder of my shots, and then I reloaded my gun with 3 rounds to take out two balloons. After I finished shooting, my dad had rented another lane, so we took turns re-killing a zombie clown (target) with the 38. I got to actually load, shoot, and eject the bullets as I shot; at one point these guys with a 40-caliber next to us started talking to my dad while I was shooting so I just let them talk and used the last ten bullets myself. Man, I love being Texan!

I am going to go actually get my day started. I've been awake since 9 but I haven't actually gotten dressed or anything. Bye!

Texting

I absolutely HATE it when people don't text me back. Especially if I had just asked you a question, or two or three. I understand that not everyone is a stuck-at-home loser like me, but seriously, if you're busy or something just tell me and I will understand. It's annoying as heck when I'm texting someone and they don't respond for like another two hours. Please tell me I'm not the only one who gets annoyed by this. I feel like a total b---- for complaining but today kind of sucks and I want to go have fun but since I don't have a freaking car or a license or friends to make plans with I'm just stuck here.

Random Stuff!

Today's David's 15th birthday! :) Finally, I'm still technically older than him but at least we're the same age now.

Not much to report other than that...for some reason I am extremely tired, though I got roughly 9 hours of sleep last night (technically very early this morning). Yesterday at his party everyone went and saw Men In Black 3 and it was capital-A Awesome! Except the whole time-travel thing really screws with my head...once you see it you'll understand. And my mom and I are going to go see For Greater Glory (this new Catholic movie) on Tuesday, we hope, so that should be fun.

As a reward for my 96 on my English final, my mom got me a copy of Us magazine with different One Direction posters and articles and such. I put them all up on my wall today, there's 6 total but they're front-and-back so I have Niall, Harry, and a group shot of all 5 of them. I'll flip them over next week. So yeah.

Changed the URL!

Hey y'all. I decided since nobody I know ever calls me Empy, I'm changing my blog name and the URL. Starting tomorrow (if you're not a registered follower of my blog already) all my posts and whatnot will be at mynameismeridith.blogspot.com . Okay? I'm giving y'all a day to read this and whoever doesn't today will be severely disappointed tomorrow.

Yesterday was an awesome start to summer. I finished my English final and my teacher had already graded it by the time I could leave, so she told me my grade and I got a 96!!!!! A freaking legit A! Except it's only 20% of the total grade for this year, so now my average is a 75 which is a C. But still! And I also got to see David finally, after about a month (my parents wouldn't let us get together until school was over with for the year). I get to see him again today; tomorrow's his birthday but the party's today. I hope your summer's going as great as mine!

Only a Few More Days...

...and then I will be freeeee!!! Two finals down, four to go. Luckily, I only have one exam (biology) tomorrow in the afternoon. I finished my history final this afternoon with a whole HOUR to spare, which I took as a very bad sign. I went back and double - no, triple-checked my answers. What's weird about me and tests is that I'm always so nervous going in, when I know that I've got it all under control! It's one of my main pet peeves about myself.

Random note: some very weird things happened in my head during my exams. I had the weirdest, least predictable songs playing in the depths of my brain. For math, it was Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back" (do NOT ask me why, because I have no earthly idea). And then during history, "I Just Can't Wait to be King" from The Lion King was playing in my head.

Summer...Summer...Summer!

5 days until summer! I must, in the words of Dory, just keep swimming, just keep swimming (or at least in my case, studying). I'm just SO bored and all of my friends from other schools (except one who's at public) are already on vacation! My friend Kat called me last night asking if I wanted to hang out today, and I was like, sure, but I have to study for finals and she was like wow, you're still in school?! And I was like yeah. 

My mom's in the process of arranging a family vacation to New Mexico again (woohoo!!!!) this summer. I'm so freaking excited! Our cabin at the ski lodge last time wasn't exactly 5-star...the appliances (a range and a fireplace) only worked part of the time. The oven didn't even work, so when my mom wanted to make biscuits (which had exploded out of their cans due to the change in altitude) my brother had to cook them in an aluminum pan over the stove, resulting in like 20 charred-but-raw-on-the-inside biscuit-like pucks and one relatively edible one. Oh well. It was fun anyway. We're going to take a different route this time, though. 

Will five days actually pass by quickly? At the rate they're going right now, I doubt it. Oh, and completely unrelated: I hope y'all like the changes I made to the template and fonts and whatnot. I was bored last night, so I changed it up. 

I GOT A JOB!

As you will remember from a previous post, I was contemplating getting a summer job this year. Well, yesterday, I did! I had been thinking of at least applying to a local coffee shop which I adore. But then I realized I don't speak coffee, nor do I know how to brew it. 


Anyhow, after school yesterday my mom had to swing by her office building and while she was there, I milled about its gift shop looking for teacher gifts. I realized that I really liked it there, and I casually mentioned to my mom how I thought it would be a good fit for me. The next thing I knew, I was shaking the head of employment's hand and thanking her! I'm starting in about three weeks! I'm only working weekends, which is good. This doesn't even feel real. I've never had a job before!


Yesterday was my older brother's 19th birthday, just throwing that out there. He's also applying for a job, but not at the same place where my mom and I work. 


:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D 

Paranoia

So I have this weird fear that whenever I'm listening to music with headphones, especially on my laptop, people can hear it just as loudly as I can. Any time that I want to listen to something, I have to take both ear buds out while my music plays just to make sure no one can hear my music.

I think the reasoning behind this is that one time in study hall, I accidentally plugged my headphones into the wrong jack. See, my computer has two audio ports: one for headphones and one for a microphone. Not knowing this, since my computer was relatively new to me, I plugged my headphones into the microphone jack and clicked Play. Next thing I knew, WRR 101.1 starts blasting all through my study hall and my teacher is telling me to turn it off. Now I can't listen to music without checking, so as to ensure my lack of embarrassment.

Finals

I swear these finals are going to kill me. I hope they won't, but my chances of surviving are highly unlikely.

Today's technically my last day of school, at least of classes. Tomorrow's Dead Day (and my brother’s 19^th birthday), Monday is Memorial Day (a.k.a. an extra study day, thank God), and then Tuesday-Friday are exam days. I'm usually not very stressed about tests, even finals because in reality they're just tests, because I test very well. It's just, there's so much I need to review; my history study guide alone is 23 pages long! I used over an entire deck of index cards just for the Greece unit vocabulary and I still need to make cards for at least 5 more sections, probably more.

In Chinese today we had to perform a skit which we had memorized in groups, except the members of my group minus me needed to use their scripts. I said my lines pretty well without my script, though I did have a few stumbles. I was so nervous beforehand! I was trembling all throughout the skit (I am terrified of speaking in front of a group), but I think we did pretty well overall. That skit was worth HALF of our exam grade so I wanted everything to be perfect. 

Next Tuesday I have a math final and a history final. I'm not really that worried about math; I took this class last year but didn't make it in to the advanced class this year. But history wasn't one of my strongest subjects this year. On Wednesday I have a biology final, then on Thursday I've got theology and Chinese. And on Friday I have just my English final (which consists of multiple choice AND an in-class essay), and then I'm free for the entire summer!!!! Here's hoping I don't die from the stress, though.

If you're stressing out about finals, like me, good luck my friend! :)

Chiletas Piñas - My New Addiction

Okay, so today in my theology class we finished our presentations about different kinds of prayers. Two of the girls in my class chose Las Posadas. It's a Mexican novena celebrating the nativity story from December 16 to Christmas Eve; the literal translation means The Houses because it's the story of Mary and Joseph trying to find a place to stay so Jesus can be born. According to tradition, at the end of the whole "journey" of los peregrinos (the holy family: Mary, Joseph, and the soon-to-be-born baby Jesus) there is a party with lots of food. The teens and kids usually get what's called a bolo, which is a basket or bag of candy, and some pastries too. So what these girls did is make bolos for all of us. One of the candies in our bolos were these lollipops called Chiletas Piñas, which are these pineapple-flavored lollipops with chili powder sprinkled throughout! They were SO good; sweet, salty, and spicy, but not too spicy to like, blow your mouth every direction. Nope, just hot enough to make you come back for more. I was so disappointed when I finished my last one. I need to go buy more!

Morbid Elizabethan English Monologues and Sushi Can Change a Girl's Perspective!

So, after school started my day got better, honestly. I had time to calm down and just focus on something else other than all the stress. 


In English class, we had just finished Macbeth and after we turned in our essays, my teacher told us we were going to write a monologue in the perspective of a bad character (I'm not naming because you might read Macbeth when you're older and I am not one to spoil) who kills herself and then we get act it out next time. So, my friends Osi, Julia, Kate, and I all wrote a pretty morbid one. Julia came up with the idea for the theme, Kate is surprisingly awesome with generating morbid and very Shakespearean expressions, Osi is phenomenal at acting, and well...I'm a good typer/editor. Part of the monologue goes like this: "Thou evil, cursed crimson, rid thyself from me!" 


And then on the way home from school, I was really craving Asian food. So we went by Kroger and I got a box of California rolls (consequently, I learned that when people say wasabi is hot, they aren't kidding!) and ate every last one.


Yay! This is my sesquicentennial (except not really, since a sesquicentennial is every 150 years so technically I'm misusing the word but I wanted to use the word sesquicentennial when referring to any unit of 150) post!

Senior Prank Day

Unbeknownst to the rest of us until recently, today is Senior Prank Day at my school. Which means they can pretty much make the underclassmen - especially the freshmen - do whatever the heck they want us to do. I have a face full of yellow, blue, and green face paint, and already I've done five jumping jacks and had to dance in a very embarrassing way ......just to get inside the school building. On any other day, I wouldn't mind this; it may have even been fun for me if today didn't already suck. Let me backpedal a little bit so you don't think I'm a fun-hating good-for-nothing.

So this morning my mom wakes me up at 6, when I have my alarm set for 6:45. She says she has to leave early for work, so I'd best get moving if I want her to take me to school. I wanted to sleep for that precious extra 45 minutes, and so my brother had to take me to carpool. Along the way, I realized I hadn't eaten breakfast and that I'd left my rubber bands at home. When we got to the carpool meeting place, nobody was there besides me...my carpool people never figure out that when you have to leave by 8:15, you'd better be there BEFORE 8-FRICKIN'-15. This has always happened, from the beginning of the school year, and it's really pissing me off. And then, once we actually got to school, the seniors ambushed us (well, not really, but you know what I mean) and the first paragraph happened. After that, I had to go water the garden for my school's Permaculture club (I'd volunteered to do it today). It's really freaking warm outside...did I mention I live in Texas? I had many struggles with the watering hose and with trying not to get stung by our not-so-friendly neighborhood hornet, which I'm pretty sure did sting me. Hopefully I'm not allergic. While watering, I just happened to check my phone's time, which read 9:27. Class starts on Mondays at 9:30 here.

So yeah. I'm dirty and sweaty and tired and hungry and I keep unintentionally touching my face in the exact spots where I got painted. And I don't particularly like Mondays in general. Sorry to be a Negative Nelly, guys, but I think I deserve a day to gripe.

Pandora

I got the Pandora app on my iPod this morning and I absolutely love it! I've got 3 stations set so far: One Direction, Queen, and The Beatles, but I'm adding more as I think of them. If anyone's wondering, now I've got Lecrae (it's Christian rap), The Band Perry, and *Nsync. And Robert Schumann. I like my variety.


The other day, I went through my middle school presentations and writing assignments and such. First off, I found a PowerPoint I made for French class in 7th grade and to my dismay, I didn't understand about half of it. And then I found my Social Studies writing assignments, and I laughed because every paragraph was only 5 sentences. If I wrote a paper like those at my current school, I would be failing every class (except string ensemble and study hall). 


Happy Sunday! I have finals in 9 days, and I need to study. Technically I started studying last night, but I only partially finished one section of Historical Geography vocabulary terms. I say partially because the Quizlet set I made for that section didn't have all of the terms I needed. So now I need to study for algebra, biology, theology, Chinese, and English except she didn't give us a review guide so I don't really remember what I need to study for that. I'll ask her tomorrow. Which reminds me that I have a Macbeth essay due tomorrow, and that my conclusion could use a couple more sentences. 

Summer Job?

I'm thinking of maybe applying for a summer job this year for some extra money, though not many places hire 15-year-old girls without any experience whatsoever. But still.

My mom says it's a little too late to be applying this year, since most kids are on break soon. Anyway, I want to have fun this summer (and see my boyfriend more often), and work would probably just get in the way.

What are your plans for this summer? Share them in the comments! Later on in the summer, I might make a post about fun things to do outside of the house (if you're a pale, antisocial Internet junkie like me). Sound good?

I have less than two weeks until break now! (13 days is technically less than two weeks :P)

Google+ and Caffeine!

So I joined Google's new social networking site, Google Plus,  today. It's pretty cool, but it would help if I actually had some friends on there. Hint-hint, nudge-nudge.

And I got an email from this website I go on every day because of their awesome posts, www.dearblankpleaseblank.com. It said one of my submitted posts was approved, and it's on the front page! I'm really excited because I've submitted a lot and this one got posted and aaaaaah and yeah. Isn't that sad, though? I get excited because of the Internet. It's the one that starts with "Dear republican dad who told me 'only democrats join the Peace Corps,'", if you want to go find it.

I'm kind of hyped up on some iced coffee and a cup of Earl Grey this morning......so maybe that contributes to my excitement. Whatever.

Ciao!

Teavana!

As you can see from my previous post today, I was not a happy camper. However, my friend introduced me to the beauty that is teavana.com. I'm a HUGE tea fan and I've always wanted to make loose leaf tea, so this was the perfect website for me. She showed me this strawberry misaki blooming tea - once the dried tea steeps, it actually blooms into a carnation-type flower! It's so pretty! Go to the website, type "strawberry misaki blooming tea" in the search bar, and you'll see what I mean.

Teavana doesn't just have tea, it also has tea brewers, strainers, and my very favorite kind of sugar - rock sugar. It's not granules like regular table sugar, but it looks like little amber-tinged pebbles!

And another happy finding!!! THEY HAVE A LOCATION KIND OF NEAR MY SCHOOL! From the sound of it, their stores are like half tea bar (samples aplenty), half tea emporium. It's heaven on earth in a nutshell for tea fanatics!

I need this week to be over

Anyone else agree? Because, for me, this week kind of sucks. I just want stupid finals to be over and go home and do nothing without feeling bad for it. Actually, I don't feel bad about being lazy now, but I should. And I'm not feeling too great right now so that's also a bad thing because it just puts me in a terrible mood and I'm no fun to be around when I'm cranky like this. So yeah.

11:01 AM on June 1st I will be free of my misery.



16 days and a few more hours...

Rainbow Popsicle Day and Bye Bye, Seniors

HAPPY RAINBOW POPSICLE DAY! Yes, it actually is a holiday. So go out and buy yourself a delicious rainbow Popsicle to celebrate! I never would have known such thing existed, if it weren't for a senior in my orchestra ensemble named Audrey.

Audrey is awesomely cool. She's so funny, organized (and no, I'm not being forced to say that) and has every single wacky holiday committed to memory since her freshman year. She's one of my very favorite seniors aside from Kate, Becca, Lydia, Carolyn, and Hannah, and I hope she has fun in college but still remembers the socially awkward freshman pianist who always tried to be like her in punctuality and maturity (me). I guess I'm just really sad now because it's the seniors' last day of classes and I'm honestly going to miss them. I know most of my senior friends through the fine arts department and they're some of the coolest people I've ever met.

If you, dearest reader, are one of the seniors I have met (and you somehow found out about my blog), I bid you farewell and have an awesome time in college! P.S. Come back to visit soon. Please? :)

Have an awesome Friday!

-Mer....wait a second, you guys probably know who I am by now. 

Lemons

Okay, first off I promise I'm not trying to shirk my blogging duties. It's just that A) I've been super busy with last-month-of-school stuff, B) my only living grandparent (my grandma) broke her hip on Sunday, and C) I haven't had much inspiration lately.

Secondly, it seems like I'm doing some sort of food trend with these posts. Not intentional at all.

Moving on to my story now. Imagine me as a small child, about 3 or 4 years old. I was in this dance class for little girls, right? And for one of my performances, my mom thought it would be a wonderful idea to lighten my already golden blonde hair even more. So, we went to my hairdresser, and she suggested squeezing lemon juice in my hair (apparently, citric acid does wonders). Ms. Becky (my hairdresser) forgot to mention one thing, which y'all will read very soon.

So my mom and I get home, she sits me down and puts my head in the sink, fanning my hair out so she could apply the juice rather evenly. Instead of juicing a lemon and moving the juice to a squirt bottle or something, my mom has this great idea to just directly squeeze the lemon halves onto my hair. This wouldn't have been a problem, had I not long, thick, VERY curly, fine hair (which I still do). Joke's on her, though; she was combing lemon seeds out of my hair for three days straight.

Since my hair's gotten darker over the years (currently it's kind of a dirty blonde), I've found a better way to lighten my hair now. It still uses the lemon juice method, but I re-used an empty It's A Ten bottle to hold about 2 Tbsp of lemon juice and around half a cup of water. All I have to do is shake, spray, dry, and go! And a plus side of re-using a leave-in conditioner bottle: it had a tiny bit of conditioner left in the very bottom that I couldn't rinse out, so my hair isn't being too damaged by the aforementioned acid. 

I can't guarantee that I'll be posting more often, but I do promise you this: once summer officially begins for me, you can expect to hear a BUNCH more from me.

XOXO and DFTBA,

Meridith

P.S. I'm so glad I make people (namely my blogger bestie Jovi) laugh. Honestly, I'm not this funny in "real life." But maybe writing's just how I get my true emotions out. 

Omelettes

Yes, those fantastic French egg things. I'm about to tell you how one made me think I was a baby chicken murderer.

So one time I was making an omelette. The recipe I was using said to bring the eggs up to room temperature before cooking by either leaving them out overnight or, if you didn't have time for that, submerging them in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes. I didn't have a lot of time, so I went with the second route. After I put the eggs in the bowl of water, I heard little peeping noises coming from that direction. I started freaking out, pretty much. I thought the eggs were hatching and that as soon as the baby chickens came out of their shells they would meet a watery death! (Perhaps I should mention that these eggs were from a friend's chicken farm, and I was pretty young. I thought maybe some eggs had been accidentally fertilized without the farmer's knowledge.) So, I ran to the bowl, snatched up the eggs, and cracked one into another bowl, fully intent on saving at least one baby chicken's life. I was surprised - and so relieved - when no baby chicken came out.

I don't think I've ever made another omelette since then. They're pretty tricky devils, anyway.

Sassy

My silly, adorable pug. She's figured out how to "laugh" with me! I was just now reading something on hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com, I started laughing and Sassy ran in, looked at me, and started howling. It's so cute and hilarious at the same time, I guess she thinks I'm howling too, so she just does as I do (she thinks I'm her mama). Anyway, it's adorable, but it makes me start laughing even harder, resulting in more Sassy howling, resulting in more Meridith laughter, resulting in....well, you get the picture.

Please accept this post as a make-up for yesterday's lack thereof. I actually had started one, but it wasn't very well thought out. So yeah.

Love you all! Have a terrific rest of your Tuesday!

Apologies

Strange though it may seem, I really like it when people apologize. If you're in an argument or discussion with someone and you (at some point) realize you're in the wrong, don't keep that to yourself. Let the person you're talking to know and then apologize, especially if you've hurt their feelings.

Not apologizing can make others think you're arrogant and don't care about their opinion. Just saying.

Side note - my friend (really my "little sister" from middle school cheer)'s mom gave birth to a baby boy yesterday! This is their eighth child, I'm pretty sure (yes, EIGHT kids). And all of them have A names. There's Addie, Andy, Adam, Aidan, Alex, Annie, Aren, and now Abraham. 6 out of the 8 are boys...the Y chromosome is strong in this family. I love them all to death, though; the 7 I know (I haven't met Abraham yet, obviously) are the most well-behaved kids I've ever met.

I think maybe I can do this whole blog-every-other-day thing. It seems to work pretty good, right?

Have an awesome Saturday!
-Meridith

The National Day of Silence is Tomorrow!

My school rocks. I need to say that right now. We're allowed to participate in the GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network)'s National Day of Silence tomorrow, April 20. It is designed to bring to everyone's attention the silencing effect anti-LGBT bullying and harassment has on schools.

How do you participate? Just wear a red shirt tomorrow and make a conscious effort to not talk at all. Of course, if you have to talk during an emergency (like there's a fire and you have to let other people know by shouting FIRE!!!!!!) then that's okay. If you're a student, like me, you should probably let your teachers know before tomorrow that you'll be silent all during class (maybe even explain why, get them interested in the gay-straight alliance stuff too). I know my school's saying that if a teacher directly asks you a question, you MUST answer them.

We can and will make a difference, guys. One person is just a drop in the bucket; imagine what thousands of American teens can do!

The link to find out more, if you're interested, is www.dayofsilence.org.

Wishing you a blessed, happy Thursday,
Meridith

NOT ALL CHRISTIANS ARE HOMOPHOBIC!

Hey y'all. I need to make something clear, all right?

As you can tell by the title, this is what today's post is about. It's that simple. You guys know I'm a devout Catholic, but I accept homosexuals just the same as I do everyone. And a lot of gays think that Catholics, Christians in general, hate them because they're gay, so they judge us based on that without even giving us a chance to say hello! How is that fair? That's like saying a lesbian tries to "do it" with every girl she sees. I'm not a Bible-pusher. I don't go around in public shouting how homosexuality is a sin, because it's not! So please don't glare at me and stop our conversation if I mention to you that I'm Catholic.

I love you all equally! Y'all mean a lot to me because you read my blog (which is where most of my inner thoughts go now, I can reach more people this way than by just writing in a diary) and I want to let you know that you're all loved no matter what your sexual orientation is.

Have courage if you're having trouble coming out; if your parents are the kind of parents everyone should have then they'll love you anyway. It shouldn't matter to them if you're gay; they should just want you to be happy. Love is love.

Peace,
Meridith

P.S. If you have a Twitter, I'd be so happy if you followed me @anotherworldMAP. I've only got 7 followers...I promise I'll follow you back :) but seriously, I'm desperate.

Universal Remotes, One Direction, and Illness

So yesterday my dad bought our family a NEW UNIVERSAL REMOTE for our entertainment center!! Yay! It works splendidly; now we don't have to use 3 different remotes just to watch "Toy Story 3" or anything. It's really awesome, honestly, and it's kind of simple to operate. There's been a few problems when I try to watch TV, but all you have to do is press Help and it sorts out the bugs almost by itself.

And yes, I'm using it to listen to my CD of One Direction's album "Up All Night." Get over it. I must say, the sound bar makes it sound even better...it's like Harry, Louis, Niall, Zayn, and Liam are all standing in my living room singing to me. They're not, of course. But a girl can fantasize, can't she?

Friday afternoon, just after lunch, I started feeling kind of sick. I felt really cold (I described it to David as "feeling like my blood has been replaced with ice water") and I couldn't understand why. Anyway, now I'm at home with a bad cough, a sore back, and these waves of feeling cold, then hot. It's really not fun at all. The skin on my back is really sensitive, too. I couldn't even put on a shirt this morning without wincing (it felt like I was scratching myself with nails).

So yeah. Today's definitely not my best day ever. What makes it worse is that I haven't seen David since Thursday at orchestra rehearsal. I miss him like crazy!

Anyway, I'm going to stop writing now and maybe go find something to eat; I still haven't had breakfast. I wanted to make some toast but we're out of bread. Which reminds me - I need to start cooking again! Well, maybe not need, but I do like cooking.

Love from your dear friend and David's girlfriend,
Meridith

Easter, Milk, Vegetarianism and Whatnot...

Firstly, I promise I meant to wish y'all a happy Easter yesterday. Sorry!! I hope it was awesome for y'all, it was a good day for me too especially since I'm Catholic. You non-religious types were just celebrating a rabbit coming and laying eggs around your yard, while we Christians were celebrating Christ's victory against death.

When I was a kid, I LOVED milk. Couldn't get enough of the stuff, actually. Given the choice between water, soda, juice, or milk, I would choose milk every time and I have no idea why. Anyway, I grew out of that for a while. I think it was partially thanks to my choice in seventh or eighth grade to become a vegetarian. I learned that a cow actually has to be pregnant with a baby cow in order to produce milk in the first place, and that after the baby is born it has to be kept separate from its mommy cow so she doesn't try to nurse it. They're kept in tiny pens within the mother cow's sight, and she hears her baby's frantic and scared moos. Then I learned that you can get calcium from other natural sources besides milk, like from broccoli, nuts, etc. And THEN I found out that after infancy humans aren't actually supposed to be able to digest milk. A mutation makes that possible, so technically people with lactose intolerance are normal.

I've started drinking milk again, though. I'm such a hypocrite. Anyway, bye y'all!

Love from your dear friend and David's girlfriend,
Meridith

YOLO - You're Doing it WRONG!!!

Some people may have already seen this on my Twitter and Skype statuses, but whatever. It needs to be heard.

So recently, there's been this saying going around: YOLO (You Only Live Once), which isn't really that bad come to think of it. But people have been using it to justify doing stupid stuff like car surfing, getting stoned or drunk, just basically stupid $#!+. THAT IS NOT YOLO, PEOPLE. That is a disgrace to YOLO and everything it truly means!!!

The real meaning of YOLO? It means that you only get to live once on this earth, so leave an honorable legacy. Be the person you'd want your grandkids to look up to and fondly remember at family reunions and such. Be the kind of friend you'd love to have. Love like you've never loved before, and accept everyone for who they are and not by appearances. Be prepared to die at any moment and live with no regrets, because you don't get a do-over. Yeah, there's gonna be times when you screw up. Big deal, you're human, it happens. The true test is what you do to overcome your mistakes.

That's what YOLO means to me, at least. If you don't agree, then please, keep doing what you're doing. Just don't expect me to join you in your stupidity. Have a nice day!

Love from your dear friend and David's girlfriend,
Meridith

Bored

Hey y'all. Here I am in English, very bored since we have a substitute today and I finished all the classwork assigned for today before lunch. So, I decided to post, also because I'm trying to start posting more often like I used to, though maybe not every single day. I don't know.

I fell asleep in Theology yesterday, mainly because I was very tired due to lack of sleep. I took my medicine that controls my dizziness from vestibular neuritis (inflammation of the nerves connecting the inner ear to the brain) the previous day, and it makes me very drowsy and I sleep longer than usual because of it. I had to stay up late, though, because I had a lot of homework. Then I had to wake up at 5 yesterday morning because of orchestra rehearsal prior to school, except my body really did NOT want to wake up. I slept in the car on the way to rehearsal, but that really didn't do much. So, in my first class (which was Theology) I found myself fighting to stay awake, but the sub's (the same sub we have today in English, coincidentally) voice was so monotonous, and I was so sleepy........I woke with a start to my friend Rebecca gently shaking my shoulder. Mr. K's previously boring lecture about parables suddenly took a turn for the more embarrassing side of things when he gave an example: "Your neighbor falls asleep in class and misses important information about the test, but you stay alert and get an idea for the extra-credit opportunity." We all knew who he was talking about. My face flushed tomato red. Luckily, I managed to stay awake the rest of class and throughout the day.

Well, anyway, I'm glad it's Friday. Tomorrow I finally get to have a birthday celebration (I'm much too old for "parties," as the younger ones call them) with my un-biological sisters Catherine and Hannah as well as David. I can't wait!

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Papa

On Monday, 26th March 2012, Thomas William "Bill" Fredrick left this earth to be with our Lord forever.

From the youngest age I can remember, Papa was there for me no matter what. He'd always be waiting with open arms and a huge smile on his face any time he saw me. Papa was the picture-perfect grandfather; loving, patient, caring. Since my dad's father passed away when I was pretty young, even though I loved him dearly, I didn't get to know him that well. Papa was different.

When my brother and I would sleep over at Mimi and Papa's house, Mimi would tuck us in bed in their guest room, then Papa would come in and tell us these great bedtime stories. He always had one ready; each of them starred a character named Uncle Henry (I don't know if he was real or not, nor if he was actually related to us) and his dog. Though I, to my dismay, can't remember any individual Uncle Henry tale, I do remember how thunderstruck I was at Uncle Henry's courage and fantastic adventures despite being only about 8 years old.

I remember once, when I was a tantrum-throwing second grader, I had a $25 gift certificate to Build-A-Bear. I was so excited...there was this one new bunny I really wanted to get, but my mom told me to wait. That weekend, I stayed with Mimi and Papa, and I knew that if I played the Sweet Baby Granddaughter card I could beg them to take me to Build-A-Bear and have them buy me that bunny. I know. I feel horrible about it, looking back on it. Little did I know that Mom had given Papa the certificate, and after I (well, really Mimi) had already bought the bunny complete with a dress and bows for her ears, he walked wordlessly out of the store with another one exactly like it - my free bunny. I felt so ashamed, but I think he taught me a lesson that day; when you want something, wait for it, and don't force things to go your way.

When I was in seventh grade, Papa started having blood pressure problems. He blacked out often, resulting in many bruises, scrapes, and even a broken spinal bone once. I got so scared; I thought he was going to die within that year. I remember once I had an extremely vivid dream that I was at his funeral, peering into his coffin. Anyway, this continued for a long and stressful two year period, until a few weeks ago. He and Mimi had moved to a new assisted living place, called Oak Hill, and I thought he was recovering. Apparently, I was wrong. He passed away in his sleep last night, at approximately 9 o'clock.

I'd been meaning to go visit them after they moved from Watermere to Oak Hill, but could never get around to it. Honestly, I didn't want to see them; it scared me to see them wasting away the way they were. That really wasn't a good excuse though...I mean, they were still the same people. I should have visited them more often.

What are the stages of grief? I really don't think they exist...I'm feeling pretty much every single one right now except for the positive stages.

If you're the praying type, please keep me and my family, and especially Papa's soul, in your prayers. Thank y'all so much...I love each and every one of you, though I don't know all of you personally.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Scared

Hey y'all. I'm really scared right now - my mom just got a call from my grandparents' nursing home (I'm supposing) and now she and my dad have left to go check up on my grandpa. He's had a lot of health problems these past few years and was diagnosed with a form of Parkinson's so I guess it's not a huge surprise that he's unwell again. Still, he hasn't been back in the hospital since they moved to Oak Hill so I thought he was maybe getting better, or at least doing the same. I guess not, though.

I was having such a good day today. I did think, Okay, when's the bad thing going to happen? because there is no way that a person can be in the same good mood for two straight days without some unfortunate turn of events.

Love from your blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

LGBT

Hey guys! I know it's been a while, but I've been extremely busy again with fourth quarter starting (my homework from today's assignments alone took me THREE HOURS to do) and my birthday and everything, but today's post is really important so listen up.

So a lot of people our age (that is, teens) are either lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. And kids like that are perfectly normal. They're still humans, and we shouldn't treat a friend of ours differently because they just happen to be attracted to people of the same gender. One of my friends told me a few weeks ago that she's bisexual and I think that's okay.

According to the Catholic Church, homosexuality is fine as long as the people don't act on it (meaning under-the-covers-you-know-what-happens). I believe exactly that. You don't have to agree with me, y'all, but I just think that everyone is the same in God's eyes, no matter who we happen to love.

I'm not LGBT myself, I'm quite straight (although I loathe that word because it implies that lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders are all wrong). I feel bad for these people our age who are being persecuted just because they're different! This takes bullying to a whole other level and it's not okay by me! You hater people out there need to get a hobby or something and stop making people's lives miserable just so you can feel better about yourself. This applies to all kinds of bullies and jerks, but really, stop interfering so much with people's love interests especially because you have nothing to do with them.

And another thing: gay does not mean stupid, okay? So stop saying "lol dude that's so gay" and stuff like that because you're actually saying it's happy, which makes no sense at all. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. (Yes, I realize that's a huge cliche, but I agree with it.)

LOVE ONE ANOTHER, AS CHRIST LOVES YOU. Be accepting; you don't have to agree with the person who happens to be LGBT, just don't shun him or her and maybe say hi once and a while.

Love from your blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Okay, so Maybe No More Challenge

Don't worry, darlings! I'm still together with David, but as far as I know he's the only one who daily reads this blog and it seems kind of silly to post about the reader. Besides, I need him to know how much I love him by my actions, not words. And I can't really keep up with these since I don't see him every day.

As you know from the post before this, I'm going out of town tomorrow and won't be back until the 18th. I'm kind of glad to be going but at the same time, I'm really going to miss David. This is actually the first camping trip I've been on since I got a boyfriend.

The main reason why I clicked on "New Post" today was this: while playing my piano today, I closed my eyes as I sometimes do. Why? I want to see if I could still play as well as I do now if I go blind. And can I? Yes, which makes me smile. I don't know why it does; I'm not in danger of going blind, but it's nice to know anyway. If I do, maybe I'll be like Stevie Wonder or something.

Anyway, have an awesome break, y'all! Hope you're enjoying it, I know I have (for the most part...today's kind of boring compared to yesterday and Monday).

Love from your semi-faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

I Must Apologize, My Lovelies!

Sorry, dear readers. I promise I'm working on the Challenge, but as I haven't seen my boyfriend since Saturday (technically this Tuesday since we had orchestra but couldn't take the picture for that day) it's been difficult. He and I plan on catching up this Saturday, since we're getting together then.

Spring break should be fun...thanks to StumbleUpon, I have a lot of hair styling techniques and nail painting to do! The girlier side of me has actually made myself organize a hair-do schedule...yes, an actual SCHEDULE for next week.

What are your plans for break? A lot of the girls here at my school are either going on a cruise, tanning, or skiing in Colorado or something like that. As for me, I'm staying home again, with the exception of a family camping/fishing trip at Caddo lake in east Texas on the 15th.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

I LOVE MARCH!!

I just realized it's 2 weeks until my birthday! And only 8 days until the One Direction album Up All Night is available to US fans!!!!!!!! FINALLY! I can't wait! And then they come on the 24th...but the day before is the premier of the Hunger Games!! I LOVE THIS MONTH SO MUCH.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

P.S. Anyone else addicted to StumbleUpon? I am, thanks to my friend Osi.

30DC Boyfriend Edition Day 1

Ta-da! :)

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Found One! Thank you Facebook!

Okay, well I found a Facebook page that has a 30DC only about boyfriends/husbands. It's also a photos-only Challenge, which could be hard because I really like blogging. Oh, well.

Day 1 :: a pic of your bf/husband Day 2 :: a pic of him holding your hand Day 3 :: a pic of somthing he cant go a day without doing Day 4 :: a pic of what u love most about him Day 5 :: a pic of your least fav thing about him Day 6 :: a pic of something he does that makes you smile Day 7 :: a pic of his best smile Day 8 :: a pic of him in his wk outfit Day 9 :: a pic that you love of you and him together Day 10 :: a pic of a quote that makes you think of him Day 11 :: a pic of him doing something that annoys you Day 12 :: a song/pic of the band or singer that reminds you of him Day 13 :: a pic of something you love to do with him Day 14 :: make a collage of the pics of him you love most Day 15 :: a pic of a place you would love for him to take you Day 16 :: a pic of him first thing in the morning (bed hair n all ) Day 17 :: a pic of a certain scent that makes you think of him Day 18 :: a pic of him and someone he is close to Day 19 :: a pic of his least fav food Day 20 :: a pic of him in a cute outfit Day 21 :: a pic of his most fav food Day 22 :: a pic of him acting crazy/silly Day 23 :: a pic of him and you on a vacation/trip Day 24 :: a pic of something he needs to work on Day 25 :: a pic of something you wish he would stop for good Day 26 :: a pic of him and his best friend Day 27 :: a picture of something that says alot about him w/ no words Day 28 :: a pic of why you love him so much Day 29 :: a pic of his most prized possesion Day 30 :: a pic of him that makes you laugh

What do y'all think? Should I do it?
Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Boyfriend 30 Day Challenge, Anyone?

It's true. So absolutely true. I hope he never forgets that. 

By special request, I will probably start a boyfriend 30 Day Challenge soon. Looking for a list on Google right now, but I can't find one that really only pertains to relationships.

Love from your faithful and deliriously happy blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

HG 30DC Day 5

Sorry y'all, I was really busy yesterday! It was the last day of my school's production of the musical On The Town and I had a lot of homework beforehand.

Maybe I shouldn't do this challenge yet, because I really don't like giving spoilers so maybe after David reads the series I will resume with it.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Hunger Games 30DC Day 4

These prompts are hard!!!! I'm pretty much a stereotypical HG fan. I like characters that most people like, and hate the ones that are obviously evil.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,

Meridith

Bugs and Why Spring is Not My Favorite Season

Though my birthday is in spring, I absolutely hate it because of all the bugs that come out from wherever they come out. I really hate it here in my advisory, because it's almost outside and there are so many mosquito hawks that fly in the door. In addition, they had to spray some kind of bug killer in here, and I'm pretty sure that bug killer is bad for people too, but I can't go anywhere. I have to stay here for another half hour while the toxins attack me. As you, my dear readers, know, I have a huge fear of bugs and arachnids. I get this weird feeling that bugs are crawling all over me or stinging me as soon as I see them, and obviously it's not pleasant in any way.

Love from your faithful and very insectophopic blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Hunger Games 30DC Day 3

A character that I hate who everyone else loves? That's gotta be Haymitch. I don't know why, I just don't like him.

Happy March!!! In 18 days I will be fifteen!!!!

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Hunger Games 30DC Day 2

My least favorite character is absolutely President Snow. I think we all know why I hate him, as long as you've read all of the Hunger Games books.

Happy leap year!

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Hunger Games 30DC Day 1

My favorite character has got to be...well, to be honest I don't actually have a specific one! They're all great, except for the evil career Tributes like Foxface, Glimmer, and Cato. If I absolutely had to pick one, I would probably choose Rue. She is such a sweet kid! And I love how her district...oh wait. I just remembered that David hasn't read the Hunger Games, and I am not one to release spoilers.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Hunger Games 30DC!!

So I found this on Facebook, courtesy of one of the many Hunger Games pages I follow (I'm addicted to the series, which is fine by me). I think I'll do it, starting today but in a different post! Yay!

If you're a fellow Hunger Games fan, comment what district you are in (they register you on the Capitol's official Facebook page). I personally am in District 2!

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Saturday Night (a.k.a. The Best Night of my Life!)

Saturday night was absolutely fantastic! David and I went to my school's Sadie Hawkins dance, basically homecoming but the girl asks the boy instead. His parents dropped him off at my house, then we took a few photos. It was different from homecoming in that we didn't have to wait for anyone else to show up, so it was little but big at the same time. Since we didn't get to see each other the weekend after Valentine's day, we exchanged gifts then (technically we'd already done that, but apparently the one he gave me on the actual day was just part 1). I have to admit...my present to him was not exactly as good as I envisioned. He, like always, outshone me by 100%. I feel bad about it, not because I want to be better than him but because he deserves better. Then we went to dinner at this Italian place kind of by my house. I know it well; I've pretty much grown up there.

We went to the dance after that. It was at my school (obviously), which is kind of a long way away from my house. So my dad drove and drove, and we talked pretty much all the time. When we got to school, we went inside and got to the dance. Most of my and his friends were there, so we socialized and danced. One highlight (among many) was that the DJ played two songs by my very favorite band of all time, so that was fun. We only really danced during slow dances, which was completely fine by me: I have two left feet, pretty much. It was so nice to be in his arms, I can't even begin to describe it. We left the dance at around 10:30. His parents picked us up and took me to a gas station so my dad could take me home (coincidentally, it was the same one that we met at after homecoming). Something really good happened on the way, I'm not going to name it but I'm glad I decided to finally let it happen and not be a scaredy cat any longer.

I couldn't fall asleep that night. I didn't want to, for fear of waking up the next morning and realizing that it was all just a figment of my imagination. And I kept thinking of this quote: "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's very happy at the moment girl)friend,
Meridith

Sorry!!!

Hey guys,
Sorry for not posting these past couple of days. I have been SOOOOO busy with tech crew and homework! The only reason why I'm blogging right now is because I have advisory today and so I have a tiny bit of time to get this post written. I just wanted to say sorry again, but please continue checking about every day for a new post: you'll never know when I can strike!

I have discovered a  fantastic snack: French vanilla popcorn. I am not kidding, it's the most delicious kind of popcorn I've ever tasted!

Today is my 2-month anniversary with David. I know, it's great! Also, in exactly a month The Hunger Games movie comes out!!!! Very very excited about both of these beautiful happenings :)

Love from your faithful (well, kind of) blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

I Love Being a Techie! (continued)

One downside to being a techie - the actors are kind of annoying and childlike. They are so excited to go out and play their role, when they're backstage they are SO talkative which kind of screws lots of things up. Anyway. I've always wanted to be an actress, but I'll keep in mind my days as a techie and keep quiet when told.

Well, and there's another downside too, but it was only in my case. One of the actors smelled SO. GROSS. I can't even begin to describe what it smelled like, but the guy was swimming in whatever foul substance he tried to perfume his body with.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

I Love Being a Techie!

Hey guys! Sorry for not posting yesterday, I was working as a techie from two to about nine o'clock last night at my school's musical so I didn't really have much time. I'm working with props and sets, which is uber-fun. I thought I was going to be building these, but as it turns out people have already built them. I just have to make sure the actors get the right prop for every scene.

I learned SO much yesterday. Seriously. I went back to my school's props closet (which I had not known existed until yesterday) and it is almost overflowing with amazing props! And I learned that the colored filters for a stage light are called "gels" because once upon a time, they used to be made out of colored gelatin. Thank goodness someone decided to change it to colored plastic because it would've made so much of a mess! Stage lights get really warm.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

All Things British! (Well...just a few)

I love the Harry Potter series. Not just the movies, y'all, but the actual books. 7 isn't just a number, "Always" isn't just a word, and socks aren't just socks to me. My Patronus is either a phoenix or an otter, I can't decide which really works best with me.

Sometimes I wish I was from the UK. It seems like a nice place to live, plus their accents are so much cooler than American accents. And, I have a friend named Katie who lives in England, so I could visit her.

Liam from One Direction got a haircut! It looks surprisingly like Zayn's hair, but flipped.

I was supposed to go to David's house today, but due to my own foolishness I couldn't go.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Freaky Friday...Literally!

Today was a pretty stressful day. I had a history test first class today, and it was pretty hard. And then, in my fourth class, my math business team went into the "shark tank" of investors today; we presented our business plan and product to them. Though it went pretty successfully (my history teacher who was part of the panel of investors gave us all 5 out of 5s for each category and circled "Yes" in response to the question Would you invest your money in this company?), I'm still nervous that I messed up our equation, and I'm the CFO so it's kind of my job to make sure I crunched the numbers right. Now, I just found out that my middle school literature teacher passed out this morning and was taken to the hospital via ambulance.

It's no wonder I've had a headache this entire week. Time for Tylenol and a good night's sleep!

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

P.S. I finished my letter for my future husband. It's only a paragraph long, but there's not much I need to tell him in words.

My Crazy Oddball Family

I love my family. But let's face it; we all have funny/crazy experiences with our families. That just seems to happen in my family way more often than it does in other families.

So firstly tonight, my mom knocked a soda bottle off a shelf in our garage. Don't even ask me what it was doing there in the first place. Anyway, the soda bottle (completely full of Sprite) punctured, and 90% of its contents sprayed in a fine mist on the car, the majority of the floor, the ceiling, and the shelf it had previously been on. Dad and I happened to be in the kitchen, which leads out into the garage via a door. We wouldn't have known that the incident with the bottle had happened if we hadn't heard a hiss, as well as my mom's shrieking. It was quite. Hilarious. Except not to my dad, who has to clean it up if he hasn't already taken care of it.

Next, at dinner, everyone somehow heard me say "I'm a diet squirrel," when in reality I said "I'm a daddy's girl." The reason for this is because I had a mouthful of bread when my mom accused me of sucking up to my dad, and I had to act quickly or else my moment to make a comeback would be gone. Everyone laughed, including me, which was quite unfortunate since I was still attempting to swallow the bread...I pretty much choked, which made the rest of my family laugh harder, which made ME laugh harder, resulting in more choking. It hurt, let me tell you; I've choked before, but only on water, which isn't really that fun either. And then my dad said "So we've gone from giant squirrel to diet squirrel, have we?" And now we have a little bit of a back story, dear readers. When my family and I went to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's historical estate, on a family trip, I was walking (really kind of stomping) around because I was bored. My parents trailed behind, and they asked me why I was walking the way I was. I replied, "Because I'm training to be a giant - SQUIRREL!" (I had just seen a squirrel, and I was very good at being distracted easily.)

Hope y'all had a great Thursday and here's hoping that your weekend will be great! I know mine will be because I get to see my boyfriend :)

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

English is a Strange Language...

I guess it's a fortunate thing that I was born into an English-speaking country, because I must say English is a very odd language. We have way too many grammar rules and spelling rules (like I before E except after C...except then how do weird and protein qualify?). Verb conjugations are hard, too; I sometimes have to look up whether a sentence makes sense or not, and I've been taught these things my entire life!

My heart goes out to those people trying to learn English. I've taken French for a long time and it's not that hard most of the time, and Chinese has its challenges but I'm getting used to it. 

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,

Meridith 

Love Is In The Air!

I have the most amazing, fantastic, perfect, super, thoughtful boyfriend ever!! He means the world to me. I am so happy right now, I'm literally grinning ear to ear as I write this.

I don't want to sound like this superficial chick who only cares about what her boyfriend gives her and not the boyfriend himself, because I'm not like that at all. However, David did give me this awesome present, and even though today's the actual day, we only saw each other this morning. We were going to go to this great cupcake place after school, but my mom said she couldn't take us, so this weekend we're going to do something else as a belated Valentine's day celebration. He says the thing he gave me today was just a small part of the main thing...if this one's so awesome I can only imagine what the other one's like! And it probably dwarfs the present I'm giving him.

My school is all abuzz with the romantic excitement. I guess that's typical of an all-girls academy!

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Straight Hair and Valentine's (Singles Awareness) Day!

I'm not usually vain, but a lot of people have told me that my hair is my best physical feature. I, for one, really hate it; it's really thick and hard to manage, and usually I just pull it back into a ponytail. It only looks really good to me when it's been flat-ironed, even though it damages the ends to almost no repair. Even then, sometimes it gets really full and looks like I'm wearing a tumbleweed for a hat. Yesterday, though, I flat-ironed it and it looks pretty good, except it's raining today and now my hair is semi-curly again.

As most of you know, tomorrow is Valentine's Day, affectionately known by singles as Singles Awareness Day because it's the one day of the year that all who are single are constantly reminded of it all day. It should be a good Valentine's Day for me, though, because I have one amazing, fantastic, wonderful boyfriend to celebrate it with! 

It was supposed to snow today...technically it did, but not enough to cancel school which is what snow is supposed to do. So we just have fail-snow today. Gotta go, guys, class starts in 12 minutes! 

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,

Meridith 

P.S. Happy almost-Valentine's!

Destination Imagination Is Amazing!

Some of you may be wondering why it took me so long to post yesterday. Well, that's because yesterday was  HUGE day on my calendar; it was the Mid-Cities regional Destination Imagination (D.I.) tournament!

DI is, essentially, creative problem solving. It is so hard to explain to someone who's never heard of it! There are five different kinds of challenges: improvisational, theatrical, technical, structural, and hybrid. Teams, from kindergarten all the way to college and sometimes even after, are comprised of 7 or fewer members. The kindergarten to first grade teams are called Rising Stars and don't actually continue on to state, but are highly encouraged to perform anyway for the sake of forming team building skills. Also, high school seniors who have done DI previously can apply for quite a large scholarship! So, each team chooses one of the five challenges to solve. They then incorporate their solution into an 8-minute or shorter skit to present to the Appraisers, NOT judges (the j-word is profane in DI lingo but don't ask me why because I don't know), on the day of tournament. Some time before or after a team's presentation on tournament day, the team goes to an Instant Challenge. The Instant Challenge is previously chosen and supplied by the Appraisers, and is also one of the different categories of challenges, though usually not the same kind that the team is already doing for their main challenge. There are 3 divisions of the same challenge based on a team's level: Elementary Level, Middle Level, and Senior Level. After the regional tournament, the first (and sometimes second) place teams from each level and challenge go to state, and then the winners from state go to the global tournament. State is hosted in a different city each year - the first time I went to state, it was in Corpus Christi, and this year it's in Corpus again.  It's been in Lubbock, Dallas, Round Rock, pretty much everywhere. At state, the night before tournament is like a big mixer of all the regions, complete with pin trading, which sounds lame but it's actually really cool. I've won the Mid-Cities pin design competition from 6th grade to this year, so it's really fun to see thousands upon thousands of people walking around with my design on their shirts and pinned to their hats and whatnot. Speaking of hats, there's always a DIme store (nothing there actually costs a 10 cents, they just needed to use DI somehow in the name) that has SO many cool pieces of junk there. Yesterday, I saw a pizza hat, a flying pig hat, a jellyfish hat, and many, many more. Also they have noisemakers aplenty, for the awards ceremony the night of the tournament.

I did DI from second grade to eighth, and will probably do it again next year. The only reason why I didn't do it this year is because I wanted to get my feet under me and get situated with the new high school experience. The good news is, my friend Addie's team got first place yesterday in their challenge (they did structure), so they're going to state in April! Hopefully I get to go with them...I'm kind of going through DI withdrawal as of yet.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

My Crazy, Beautiful Sisters

I biologically don't have any sisters; I'm the youngest child in my family and the only daughter. That's why I'm so fortunate to have my two best friends in the entire world, Hannah and Catherine (who I think I've previously mentioned). They, like me, are pretty crazy. We've been best friends since 4th grade - before that, I was just the overall likable girl, really shy and mellow. But after I met them and we became inseparable, a crazier, wilder side of me revealed itself. We went to school together from fourth to eighth grade, and now we're all at different high schools. That in itself is kind of hard, but we live relatively close to each other so we can get together at least once a month, which is nice. Anyway, they are hilarious girls, and I have no idea what I would be doing without them. We, like all best friends, have our ups and downs - Lord knows we've had our fair share of arguments. But, we always make up; like I said, they're my sisters. Anyone who's read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants can get a good mental picture of us, minus one girl.

It's currently 23:42 (11:42 PM), so I need to go to bed now. I have a busy day tomorrow!!

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

P.S. This is my 105th post! Awesome!

Music!

A lot of people think that they can only like a certain genre of music. I, for one, don't follow that belief. I really don't care what I listen to; rock, alternative, jazz, bluegrass, classical, country, Christian, pop, rap, even Asian music all sound good to me. I believe that jars, NOT people, should be labeled, and a lot of people are classified based on what genre of music they listen to. Plus, music is the universal language, so why only stick to one kind? So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Sorry if some of those previous sentences aren't making much sense. I seem to have forgotten my brain at home today...

I got 8 hours of sleep last night, the recommended amount of sleep teenagers should get. I've noticed recently, though, that if I do get the proper amount of sleep I'm less attentive the next day, but if I get around 6 or 5 I'm really awake.

Here's a joke to (maybe) make y'all laugh and lighten your mood if you're having a bad day:

What do you do with dead chemists?



Barium!
Oh, how I love bad jokes...


Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Why???

I just want to know something: why in the world do we have different race celebration months, but if someone proposes White History Month it's considered racist? How is THAT fair? I mean, I realize that we whites haven't always been the nicest when it comes to discrimination, but seriously. In school, even here at my own Alma Mater, racism is present: the Latinas Unidas club. And the teachers are, in honor of Black History Month, quoting famous black people.

I just don't get it. It doesn't seem right to me, and I'm not racist. At least, I hope not.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

My Near-Death Experience

Monday was a semi-eventful day, mostly because I almost died. Thankfully (and obviously) I didn't, because I'm still posting....or maybe my ghost is posting for me??

Anyway, so on Monday my carpool had just dropped off everyone except for me at our carpool spot. I take piano lessons near their house, so they drove me to their home so my mom could pick me up and take me to piano. Just as we were pulling out of the parking lot to go to their house, this guy in front of us decides that he can't talk on the phone and drive at the same time, so we sat there for about a minute watching as he missed a bazillion chances to turn. Anyway, my carpool pulled aside from him, and just as we turned out this white car comes zooming towards us, and I swear the driver of that car sped up. If my carpool had been a second slower, we would have been T-boned and I would have gotten hit. Thankfully, I have a strong guardian angel. Nobody was hurt.

Love from your faithful and still alive blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

The Powerpuff Girls

Deepest apologies, dear and faithful readers! I had promised that I would write today's post during lunch, but I ended up using all the lunch time hanging out with my friends and eating; today's one of my friend's birthdays so we had a mini-party. And I just got finished with two tests, one in Chinese and one in math, so now that I have a tiny bit of down time I can get this done. In addition, my laptop decided to die right as I was writing this.

I've always secretly wanted to be Bubbles from that show The Powerpuff Girls. I found out the other day that they used to be called The Whoop@$$ Crew (symbols representing the letters they resemble), which I guess is fitting, seeing as these girls shoot lasers from their eyes and fight crime despite being oh, 3 feet tall and maybe 8 at the oldest. Anyway, for a while I only thought that I was like Bubbles because she and I both have blond hair and blue eyes, but as it turns out we are also similar personality-wise. She's kind of the sweet and innocent one, and she cries when someone hurts her stuffed animals (I cry when I see an actual animal in pain).

Just an observation: Adele gets way too much airtime. I love her music, don't get me wrong, but I just think audiences need more variety. Last night, Mix 102.9 played "Set Fire to the Rain" at least 3 times within one hour. How do I know? I counted.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

Thoughts Today...

Yeah, so being the wonderfully effective student I am, I'm writing this post instead of doing a project that's due tomorrow. That was sarcasm, folks. But anyway.


The head department of my school has had this wonderful idea that all courses should assign their students projects at least once quarterly (more often is preferred) instead of tests, but they should be counted as test grades. However, I for one am TERRIBLE at projects. I have zero time management skills, and because of that my projects are usually done hastily the night before they're due. On the other hand, I test very well, which I'm sure is a key factor in how I got accepted to this school in the first place. 


Maybe I just won't go to this school anymore. It's not solely based on the project-based learning; the economy is terrible here (I'm told it's bad pretty much everywhere around the world) and my parents have already given up so much for me to have a Catholic education. I love my school with all my heart, don't get me wrong. The year's not even over yet, but I've met so many wonderful people because of being a student here. It would just make everything easier if I went to a public school. We could have a better house, more care for my grandparents...


Gosh, I don't even know what to do. I need to talk to my parents, that's for sure. 


Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith

The Super Bowl - What's the Big Deal?

For any of you who aren't from the United States, you might not understand just how greatly obsessed Americans are with football. And by football, I mean the sport with helmets and quarterbacks and a 100-yard field, not soccer. To be honest, I don't understand it either, and I've lived here my entire life!

So today is a big day for football fans - it's the Super Bowl! All over America in just four hours, the majority of our citizens will gather around their televisions armed with paper plates of nachos, pizza, chicken wings, and (at least for people over the age of 21) red plastic cups of cheap beer, all to watch twenty-something men collide with each other over an oblong brown ball. Yeah, I don't get it either. I have to admit, though, the commercials during the Super Bowl are often hilarious and fun to watch. And my family, though not major football fans, always chooses a team to cheer for (this year, we're going for the Giants). 

Anyway, have a great Sunday, and for all you football fans out there, happy Super Bowl!

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,

Meridith 

P.S. Patriots are going DOWN. 

And That's Why I Don't Like Odysseus

I'm in an honors English class. Currently, we are reading books of the Odyssey and then writing an essay about how Telemachus changes throughout the beginning. But, for now we've stopped reading about Telemachus and instead, we are delving into Odysseus's life. I HATE HIM.

Firstly, Odysseus is unfaithful to his wife. I understand that the poor guy has been trying to get home, but you just don't cheat on your wife, no matter how tempting Calypso or Circe or anyone is. His wife Penelope is being courted at home herself, but she doesn't ever give in to her suitors. She refuses to believe that Odysseus very well could be dead. But not Odysseus; he's all, "Oh, I miss my wife, I miss my dear Penelope so much," and then the next stanza says "and they lost themselves in love." Penelope needs a better husband.

My next big reason why I hate Odysseus is that he's really full of himself. Obviously, this epic poem is all about Odysseus, making him the hero. However, you don't go spouting off about how great and righteous you are, especially if you're bragging to someone you just ticked off. Exhibit A: when he and the remainder of his crew have just seconds ago blinded Polyphemus and got on the water again, Odysseus starts shouting "I am the son of Laertes!" and all that jazz. And what does Polyphemus do, in between throwing mountaintops at their ship? He starts praying to Poseidon, who just gives Odysseus a whole lot more trouble than the guy needs. 

So yeah. Odysseus is definitely NOT on my list of favorite people.

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,

Meridith 

Bullying Sucks!

For a lot of my life, I have lived with bullying. I think, to some extent, everyone has. But anyway, a lot of my friends have experienced firsthand how terrible and suckish it is. And a lot of people think that bullying has a certain stopping age, that adults can't be bullies too. 

In sixth grade, there was this boy named Ethan. He was "popular" in the sense that his family was stinking rich and everyone wanted to go to his house, or something. In addition, he was really two-faced (most bullies are: they make you think you're their friend, get you to trust them, and then they turn against you for no reason at all). One day, he came up to me saying there had been a rumor going around about my friend, my other friend, and me all being lesbians. Let me just say right now that is 100% FALSE; I have a boyfriend, so I obviously like guys. And my other two friends like guys, too; all of us have had a boyfriend at one point or another, and one of these two girls seems to not live without having a crush on somebody. Turns out that Ethan had been lying about the rumor; I found out later, but it still made me feel very insecure and hurt that people would have said such mean things. 

There was also this one girl who I still today despise. In high school, we have a term for girls like her but I'm not going to post it on this blog. 

My most recent personal encounter with bullying was about the second week of school this year. I had finished with orchestra practice that morning and went to the cafeteria to eat breakfast.  I walked up the cafeteria's balcony stairs, and since the doors are locked from the outside a girl I'd never met before let me in. None of my friends were at school yet, so I sat down with this girl and her friend. Shortly after, another girl came up and looked at me. I said hi, but all she did was look at me like I was a piece of dirt, look to her friends and say "Who's the creep?" Imagine how that made me feel. I had no idea what to say back, so I just calmly finished my doughnut, threw away my trash, and went to the nearest bathroom so nobody would see me crying. 

Bottom line - DON'T BE A BULLY. Even adults can be bullies to other adults; it's crazy!

Love from your faithful blogger and (David's girl)friend,

Meridith

The Beauty of Being a Nerdfighter

So  I may have mentioned this previously, but I am a die-hard Nerdfighter. I know not many of us out there know what Nerdfighters are, so I'll try to explain to the best of my ability. 


Nerdfighters are, essentially, fans of John and Hank Green (YouTube channel name: vlogbrothers). These two guys are AWESOME. John's a writer; he's been awarded at least one Printz Award, too! His most recent - and in my opinion, best - book is titled The Fault in Our Stars, affectionately referred to by all of Nerdfighteria (the invisible but very real nation of Nerdfighters everywhere) as TFIOS. Hank, on the other hand, is a super-freaking-genius when it comes to science. Hank also sings and writes his own songs; my favorite songs are "A Song About an Anglerfish" and "This Isn't Hogwarts." He and John now have two different channels that they both frequently upload videos to: John does a history series called Crash Course (channel name, appropriately, crashcourse), and Hank is making one about science called Sci Show (aptly named scishow). Their video blogs (or vlogs) were the brainchild of the Green brothers as a way to communicate with each other without using text messages for an entire year. They're hilarious guys, worth checking out. And if you like what you see, you too can become a Nerdfighter easily and painlessly! Nerdfighteria is a wonderful place to live, and you don't even have to move to get there. 


Warning: a lot of what I will say now is going to be pretty confusing if you're not a Nerdfighter and/or haven't watched most of their videos. Watch out for Giant Squids of Anger, my friends! And Decepticons. 


DFTBA! 
Love from your faithful blogger, Nerdfighter, and (David's girl)friend,
Meridith 


P.S. If interested, check out "How To be A Nerdfighter: A Vlogbrothers FAQ" so you can join the awesomeness!